Conveyors may be used in stackers to stack material or in devices configured to reclaim material from a stack. Typically, systems designed for stacking and reclaiming material utilize a number of conveyors. One set of conveyors is typically used to convey material to a stacker for stacking in a particular area. Another set of conveyors is used to reclaim the material stacked in that area. Examples of systems used to stack material or reclaim material are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,191,888, 6,782,993, 6,085,890, 5,609,397, 5,562,194, 5,090,549, 4,139,087, 3,604,757, 2,851,150 and 1,996,488.
Conveyor systems used to stack material or reclaim material often include a system of conveying devices. For example, overland conveyors are often used to transport material over relatively long distances to different locations. An overland stacking conveyor may be configured to move material from a material receiving location to a storage pile. An overland reclaiming conveyor may be configured to convey material from a storage area to an area designated for using the material. Typically, a mobile bridge conveyor or other conveyor is positioned adjacent to a stacking overland conveyor. An overland tripper may be configured to feed material from an overland conveyor to a mobile bridge conveyor. A mobile overland tripper straddles the overland and typically travels a long distance (e.g. 2000 m or more). The mobile overland tripper may feed material from a stacking overland conveyor onto a mobile stacking and reclaiming apparatus for stacking the material.
The tripper is powered electrically and often supplies power to downstream equipment, thus requiring multiple cables and power connections. It is impractical for mobile trippers to carry the entire amount of power cable needed to travel over such distances, as the size of cable reel required can become impractically large for very long cables. Although a cable drum can hold significantly more cable than a cable reel, its use adds substantially more length and cost to the tripper conveyor compared to a cable reel. In addition, weight is an issue for trippers, which can weigh 200,000 pounds or more.
The power cable used for tripper conveyors is comparatively thick (˜2½-3″ diameter) and heavy (˜1000 kg/100 m). Therefore, to conserve both space and weight on the tripper, tripper conveyors will typically carry about 100-400 m of cable on a reel, which will be not nearly as long as the path that the tripper has to traverse, which can often be in excess of 2000 m. Therefore, it will be necessary during the operation of the tripper to move the cable carried by the tripper from power outlet to power outlet. If the tripper carries, as an example, 200 m of cable, it will be necessary to move over 2000 kg of bulky, hard to maneuver cable to the next power outlet. Reattaching and attaching the cable to another position along the tripper's path can easily take half a day, with it being necessary to put the cable on a pallet or dolly drag it to the next outlet. Such a procedure is very manpower intensive, and increases the risk of potential back injury to personnel handling the cable.
Therefore it would be advantageous, and it is an object of this invention, to have a method of reattaching and attaching a power cable used to electrically power large mobile conveyors for the distance of the path the tripper takes while in operation.